Joe Carnahan Could Direct Crime Drama Sugar Bandits

"Papa" Joe Carnahan has faced a weird, long road since he released the critically-acclaimed drama The Grey back in January of last year. First there were his plans to direct a remake of Death Wish, but that fell apart because the filmmaker didn't want to cast Bruce Willis in the lead role. Then there were his plans to reboot the Marvel Comics character Daredevil at 20th Century Fox, but that project couldn't get together fast enough and the rights to the man without fear reverted back to Marvel Studios. We've also heard stories about Stretch with Patrick Wilson, the action flick Continue, and the adaptation of Undying Love, but it's been hard to say exactly what direction he was heading. And today yet another movie has entered the picture.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Carnahan is close to signing yet another deal, this time to direct an adaptation of the Chuck Hogan novel "Devils in Exile" titled Sugar Bandits. Hogan is adapting the book himself. The story follows an Iraq War veteran named Neal Maven who, facing serious financial problems living in Boston, decides to team up with a group of other soldiers to steal money from drug dealers and destroy their product. Hogan actually has some experience in Hollywood having scripted Ben Affleck's The Town.

Carnahan is a better filmmaker when he's making more serious material, so this sounds right up his alley. Unfortunately, the trade doesn't mention where this one might fall in the director's schedule, so who knows when he'll actually get to make it.

Eric Eisenberg
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Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.